More airport charging on the way?

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I wonder when the DAA or Aer Rianta or whatever they’re called will try this trick I read about yesterday. According to a blog on the UK Telegraph newspaper, Stansted Airport have moved their passenger pick-up area to inside the short term car park. This now means that when you’re picking someone up, you have to pay at least the minimum charge for 15minutes – £1.

Speaking of airport parking, I had an interesting joust with the parking attendant in Dublin Airport a while ago. I went in to try to find short term parking prior to a flight, but there were no spaces whatsoever. However, I’d gone over their minimum time while searching, so when I went to leave, I was asked to pay. When I explained that I hadn’t actually parked, and that I had simply been looking for a space, I was basically told that that didn’t matter. I suppose from his point of view, he wouldn’t have been able to tell whether the 15 minutes I was in there that I was actually parked, or as I really was, driving around vainly trying to find a space.

Still being reasonable, I tried to point out that I was just over 15 minutes, and that I can show my plane ticket to prove that I’m not having a laugh, but still no flexibility shown. As it stood, the standoff meant that there were a number of cars backed up behind me. I pointed out again that I hadn’t parked, that I was going to the long term car park and that I’d be getting a flight in an hour or so, but the person still wasn’t interested.

So I sat there. Said nothing, and watched the cars back up behind me. Eventually our friend gave me out some scrap of paper and told me to write down my details (which I did, all fake) and why I wasn’t paying my parking fee, and he let me out.

Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.